


Idiot

by TheCarmineWanker



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:08:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23016790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCarmineWanker/pseuds/TheCarmineWanker
Summary: s4e18 Yet another American Gothic fic, surprise surprise.
Relationships: Elena Gilbert/Elijah Mikaelson
Kudos: 40





	Idiot

Elena checked her watch for what was probably the tenth time as she slowly paced back and forth in the gazebo. “Em” was now four and a half minutes late. With each passing second, her curiosity about this individual’s identity and, conjointly, her impatience grew exponentially. Finally, as the second hand hit the eleven, she was relieved of both.

“Katerina.” She turned to face the person she had come to meet, veritably shocked to see Elijah. 

“Elijah.” The greeting she returned to him came out as more of a question than she would have liked. She quickly recovered, realizing that, really, she shouldn’t have even been surprised in the first place. ‘E.M.’ Who else could it have been? “You’re a little bit late, aren’t you?” Five minutes and twelve seconds, to be precise, but, then again, who’s counting?

“You colored your hair.” She hoped he didn’t notice the way she slightly froze as he reached out to touch her hair and, more importantly, that the red streaks hadn’t just given her away. “I like it.” She relaxed, she hadn’t been caught.

As she started to respond, he cut her off, kissing her. It was shocking and smooth and everything she had fantasized about, back when she had her emotions and had, on various occasions, daydreamed about him. She could feel cracks starting to form in the barrier all her emotions were sealed off behind but before it got messy, she reminded herself of something very important that, somehow, in the moment, she had almost forgotten- _he thinks I’m Katherine_. Just like that, she went back to kissing him and not caring.

“I missed you.” That little confession almost had an effect but, then again, if it wasn’t meant for her, why should it matter? She was supposed to be playing a role, after all.

“And I’ve missed you.”

“So, do you have it with you?” Elena failed to fully mask her confusion as she had no idea what he was talking about. Oh well, that’s what you get when you go to someone else’s meetings pretending to be them.

“Do I have what?” Even as she said it, she knew it was stupid and she probably just blew her cover.

“The cure.” Now that’s an interesting development. She shook her head.

“It’s in a safe place.” She gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “Why don’t I go and get it?” She lightly patted his chest before starting to walk away. “And then I’ll be right back.” 

Elena had hardly made it five steps before he grabbed her arm, dragging her back and turning to face her again.

“Where’s Katherine, Elena?”

___________________________________________________

“If anything whatsoever happens to Katherine, I will descend upon Elena.” With that line, Elijah ended his call with Stefan. 

“You’re both idiots.”

“Excuse me?” He sounded like he genuinely took offense to what she had just said.

“You’re already well aware of why Stefan’s an idiot but I actually thought you were supposed to be smart. Now, though, you’re hooking up with Katherine in spite of the million ways she’s completely fucked you over and, not just that, you’re also bartering with Stefan with my life to keep your psycho girlfriend alive… ish. Not to mention how long it took you to realize it was me, not Katherine. I didn’t think you’d be daft enough to only recognize me when I flashed my ring in your face.”

“Katherine has the cure and I want it. Given that only she knows its location, I believe it is perfectly reasonable to insist on her safety. Surely you must know by now that if you need information from someone, you keep them alive. Also, I made that threat specifically because I knew that even if Stefan did not believe me, he would never take that chance.” She quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Is fucking her part of the strategy to get that information? Do you think that having sex with her will function the same way torture does and get her to spill all her dirty little secrets to you"

“It doesn’t hurt to build rapport with her, although that isn’t the main reason behind my relations with her.”

“Fine, I’ll bite, what is the reason, then?”

“Distraction.” She never thought an _honorable gentleman_ such as himself would engage in meaningless sex for any reason.

“From what?”

“You. The guilt I bear because of the things I have done to you, the pain of having to stay away.” More cracks were forming, but she chose to ignore them. Her emotions were still walled off and that’s all that mattered. What she did was laugh.

“You’re trying to tell me that you’re like obsessed with me but you didn’t recognize me earlier until you saw my ring?” A ghost of a smile flitted across his face.

“I never even attempted to tell you anything of the sort, you reached that conclusion on your own.” Elena’s eyes narrowed.

“No, it was only after you saw my ring, when I was starting to walk away that you called me out.”

“Yes, that was when I chose to call your bluff. Please, though, do give me at least some credit. It wasn’t your ring that told me who you were, it was your body language. Even before I had crossed the street, before I saw the red in your hair, I knew it to be you. Once I reached you, a cumulation of little inconsistencies further reinforced that I was correct in your identity. I must give you credit for the effort you put into your performance, though, as it was an admirable one. ”

“But why-”

“I chose not to tell you until I did because you had already put effort in by coming to the meeting as Katherine, I merely figured that if you wished to masquerade as her and attend our meeting, that I ought to humor you and give you precisely what you had signed up for. As I have already said, your performance was quite good, I wanted to see how long you could keep it up at such a caliber that it wouldn’t be entirely unlikely for me to have been fooled. Once you displayed your ring, though, I couldn’t pretend any longer, you had forced me to call you out.” Elena raised an eyebrow, still somewhat skeptical.

“So you played along because you knew I was faking?”

“Yes.”

“If you knew it was me, though, why did you kiss me like that?”

“Partially due to what I have already told you, regarding my motives, but also because I simply wanted to and had for quite some time. I do, however, apologize for taking advantage of the situation like that, it was wrong of me to do so.”

Just like that, the switch flipped. Except, she never would have described it in those terms. Damon using the sire bond to force her to turn it off was a lot like flipping a switch but letting it all back in wasn’t like that at all. It was like a bunch of hairline cracks had formed in a dam and then, suddenly, one large impact demolished it and let all that water come rushing out. But that wasn’t entirely correct either. In that moment, when Elijah confessed that he had wanted to kiss her, the feeling reminded her of after the car had gone off of Wickery Bridge and Stefan pulled her out, when her head broke the surface and she could _breathe_ again.

In a way, it was an odd combination of both those feelings, having that moment when she surfaced and could breathe, coupled with a violent flood of emotions she had been stuffing away. All these emotions, positive and negative, were suddenly there again. Jeremy was dead but there was a cure but Silas had been awakened but she wasn’t sired to Damon anymore but she had _burned her fucking house down_ but the people around her had cared enough to stick with her even when she’d had her emotions off and been a raging bitch. Plus, now it seemed that Elijah might just love her, maybe. It was more hope than she’d ever had about that whole situation, ever since she caught feelings for him somewhere around the second or third time they’d daggered him.

“Elena, are you alright?” Apparently, she was crying.

“Yeah.” She wiped the tears from her eyes, nodding. “It really does all come back at once, huh?”

“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never experienced it.” His brow furrowed in concern. “I am deeply sorry for anything I have said that may have upset you enough to cause this.” 

“If you think that anything you said made me upset, then I really can make the claim that you’re an idiot.” Her lips quirked into a small half smile.

“Then, would you possibly care to enlighten me on what did cause your emotions to return?”

“You. The way you talked about recognizing me from across the street and claimed to have been with Katherine as a way to distract you from me and, most importantly, the way you said you kissed me because you wanted to and, quote, ‘had for quite some time’.” She drew nearer to him, dropping her voice until it was only a hair above a whisper. “In case you were wondering, I’d also been wanting to do that for quite some time.”

There was a certain spark in his eye that she barely caught before his mouth was on hers and, much like in their earlier meeting, he was kissing her. This time was much better though, in Elena’s opinion, because of the part where, this time, she was damn well certain that he knew exactly who she was. She smiled against his lips. _Suck on that, Katherine_.


End file.
